Maria Limanskaya, the Soviet Symbol of the Allied Victory

Maria Limanskaya, who has died aged 100, was a Soviet traffic “regulator” who in May 1945 became known as the “Victory traffic controller” and the “Brandenburg Madonna” after a photograph of her directing traffic in front of Berlin’s battered Brandenburg Gate, pock-marked by bullets and shrapnel and topped with the banner “Glory to the Soviet troops”, was published in newspapers around the world.